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For the night of the Heat vs. the Nets, a small team of AYW volunteers surveyed the state of illegal parking and idling in the vicinity of Barclays Center. Above is a photo of a TLC driver sleeping in his car while parked in a crosswalk on the north side of Atlantic Avenue near South Oxford Street.

The study began at 8:30 and concluded at 10:30 PM. The streets were each only surveyed once. They are listed in the order they were surveyed. The survey preceded the end of the game which is by far the most impactful period of arena operation.

Based on our experience and AYW incident reports, the same locations are used over and over by drivers parking and idling illegally. We used a slightly larger set of boundaries for this survey than our previous survey on December 5th. Our western boundary was 4th Avenue in Park Slope and Fort Greene Place in Fort Greene; the southern boundary was St. Mark's Avenue in Park Slope and Prospect Heights. The eastern boundary in Prospect Heights was Vanderbilt Avenue; in Fort Greene it was South Portland Avenue. The northern boundary was Hanson Place and Atlantic Avenue.

In total, we witnessed 77 parking and/or idling violations. 65 were parking and 12 were idling violations. In December we found 83 violations. 64 of those were for parking and 19 were for idling. Vehicles cited below as idling were not timed to see if they were idling for longer than the 3 minutes allowed in NYC, although in many cases the drivers appeared to sleeping, on the phone, or watching television. We did not file complaints with 311. Many of the illegally parked cars had out of state licenses.

Enforcement was in the process of ticketing some cars on Atlantic Avenue at the time of the survey. Over the course of our two hour survey we counted 10 tickets, all but one in fire hydrants or bus stops. In December we found 1 ticket during our survey.

The designated staging area for TLC vehicles on the south side of Atlantic Avenue between 6th and Carlton Avenues was more full than it is normally. Still, there were only 10 vehicles parked there, 3 committing violations. 2 cars were idling and 1 car was a private, non-TLC vehicle.

In one area, the north side of Atlantic Avenue between South Portland Avenue and Fort Greene Place, illegal private parking and a surfeit of city agency parking facilitated by DOT-issued placards is forcing patrons of the shopping mall and the arena to use a travel lane to load and unload. This is clearly less safe than unloading near the curb. During our survey 9 cars with some form of placard parked in this area at the same time a line of 7 to 9 cars continually lined up to load and unload in the adjacent travel lane.

A number of times during the course of our survey we were approached by limo drivers concerned we were recording their license plate. One driver worked for an NBA player. He noted he travels throughout the country with his player. He stated most arenas have designated parking for players inside the arena. The original plans for Barclays Center contained an adjacent 350 space below-grade arena parking lot that would have been completed roughly one month after the arena. In changes to the plans made in 2009, the construction of that below-grade parking was delayed until later in the construction schedule, adding to an apparent crunch in below-grade capacity for the arena.

The NBA driver estimates 30 VIP vehicles (players, families of players, owners, staff) park inside the arena. Spill-over is placed in the pad east of the Dean Street entrance. Because of interest in this game, the driver was forced to find parking at a hydrant. He stated the arena operators had not provided the location of the designated TLC staging area to him.

Survey results, January 30th:

Atlantic Avenue between Flatbush and 6th Avenues (south side):

One parked car in the lay-by lane

Atlantic Avenue between 6th and Carlton Avenues (south side):

9 cars and 1 bus (note: only one non-TLC car was illegal here because this area is now designated for TLC staging only during arena events)

2 cars were idling at the time of the survey

Atlantic Avenue between Carlton and Vanderbilt (south side):

None.

Atlantic Avenue between South Oxford and Carlton Avenues (north side):

5 cars with placards of some form, although some appeared to be photocopies and may not have been valid.

1 car in hydrant

1 car blocking crosswalk

South Elliot between South Portland and Hanson Place:

1 TLC vehicle idling at hydrant

Atlantic Avenue between South Portland and Fort Greene Place (north side):

During the course of the survey the number of cars waiting or loading in the adjacent travel lane ranged from 7 to 9 vehicles. In the "No Standing Zone" and bus stop 16 cars were parked without drivers and 7 had drivers. Of the 16 without drivers, 9 had city agency placards. Most were NYPD and/or traffic control. If the city agency cars did not park in this location there may be enough room to avoid having private cars stop in the travel lane, which is dangerous.